The Acorn
A Message from the Principal of AOC, Dr. Fine
Academy of the Canyons Summer News
Greetings AOC Families,
Happy Summer! Every year, we must say goodbye to some faculty. But, we also have the opportunity to welcome new talent to our AOC family.
To begin, we send our well wishes and thanks to Dr. Robert Walker and Mrs. Eunice Hong for their many contributions to AOC. They were recently hired as administrators at two different school sites. We also say goodbye and thank you to Mr. Jerry Malkowski, Mr. Dustin Funk, Ms. Michele Engerran, and Mrs. Jacquie Pershing-Rousseau. Their outstanding work with students and professional journey will continue at different school sites.
This summer, we hired outstanding, incredibly skilled, innovative, and passionate teachers to join our AOC team. Please help me in welcoming five new full time faculty members to our teaching staff at AOC: Jenni O'Shea, Jessica Hoover, Brooke Eller, Mackenzie Frame, and Jeremy Sparage. Please see their pictures and biographies below. And, we also welcome therapist, Bailey Wagner. We are very excited to have them join our team.
As we get closer to the start of the school year, we also look forward to welcoming our students back to campus with great enthusiasm. We want you to know that we are planning for this return. A dedicated team of teachers and students has been part of an "Opening of the Year Committee" planning activities for the return to school. Dr. Shapiro, Mr. Koegle, Mr. Whilhelm, Mrs. Bisacchi, Mrs. Garvar, Mrs. Herrera, Dr. Fine and students from ASB and Wellness are planning the opening events. We are working together to make sure students feel supported in this transition back to the physical campus. Activities will include student tours, lunchtime activities, music, and the return of our "Rooted Event"!
As a school community, we aim to make this the very best year for our students. It's an exciting time to reunite with our entire community at AOC's campus.
Please enjoy these last few weeks of summer and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Sincerely,
Dr. Juliet Fine
661-362-3056
Important Dates for Your Calendar
Please add these important dates and events to your calendars:
- 12th Gr - 1:30p-2:30pm
- 11th Gr - 2:30p-3:30pm
- 10th Gr - 4:00p-5:00pm
- 9th Gr - 5:00p-6:00pm
August 10th - First day of AOC Fall semester
August 16th and 17th - Tentative COC Freshmen/Transfer student Tours
August 23rd - First day of COC Fall semester
August 30th - Student Makeup pictures/AOC ID (also Staff pictures on this day FYI)
August 31st - Back to School Night
Jenni O'Shea, English Grade 10
Jenni O'Shea earned her bachelor's degree in Journalism from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2002. As a teacher, she has taught English and Journalism at West Ranch High School for twelve years and most recently Canyon High School. She has also taught at the university level as a professor at The Master’s University. She has a variety of leadership experiences including overseeing high school level and university level student newspaper and journalism programs. Jenni and her husband have two children, a 12-year-old daughter Lucy and 8-year-old son Isaiah. She is beyond excited to join the AOC family! Jenni loves music, coffee, reading, being outside (when it’s not 100 degrees), and hanging out with friends and family. She looks forward to getting to know each of her students, their stories and interests.
Brooke Eller, English Grade 9
Jessica Hoover, English Grade 12
Jessica Hoover has an MA in English and loves old libraries, ghost stories, and curling up with lemon tea and a good book. She has fifteen years of teaching experience at the secondary level. In her free time, she writes novels and is professionally represented by the literary agency Dunow, Carlson, & Lerner. She looks forward to sharing her passion for writing with her students.
Jeremy Sparage, Math
Jeremy is an AOC alumni, graduation class of 2013. new math teacher at AOC starting next school year. He attended UC Irvine and San Diego State, most recently, he taught math at Hart High School. He enjoys hiking, biking, playing piano, and yes, even doing math and is interested in be very interested in helping studnets pursue their interests by starting/ joining new clubs for next school year. His ideas include Strategic games club, Math Club and Improv Club. It has always been a dream of his to teach at AOC and work with our community.
Mackenzie Frame, Social Studies Grade 12
Bailey Wagner, Social Worker and Therapist
Academy of the Canyons
Email: jfine@hartdistrict.org
Website: https://www.academyofthecanyons.com/
Location: Academy of the Canyons, Rockwell Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA, USA
Phone: 661-362-3056
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Academy-of-the-Canyons-Middle-College-High-School-330158873741614
Twitter: @Academy_Canyons